Celebrating its 15th year, the dog-friendly, popular-with-mushers International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race (IPSSSDR) speeds through 10 communities in Wyoming and Utah from January 29 to February 6.The 2010 Jackson IPSSSDR send-off is from the Jackson Hole Winter Carnival complete with a bonfire, fireworks show, music and food booths, before heading on to stages in Lander, Pinedale, Cora, Big Piney/Marbleton, Alpine, Kemmerer/Diamondville, and Uinta County, and the big finish in Park City.
With its unique "stage stop" format, the race stops in a different town each night, giving the Wyoming communities an opportunity to turn on the hospitality for mushers and spectators alike with events from dog parades, kids’ dog sled races and ice sculpture contests to banquets, carnivals and pie socials.
The IPSSSDR attracts many return racers like Sam Perrino and Grant Beck from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, as well as such newcomers as Chris Adkins from Montana, a rookie in the 2010 race. Buddy Streeper, the only musher in sport history to have won the five majors – Laconia, The Pas, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Yellowknife – returns to Wyoming to vie for victory; he won first place in his first IPSSSDR in 2004.
The International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race was founded in 1996 by Frank Teasley to make sled dog racing more accessible to the public.
For more information about top events in Wyoming, take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Wyoming at http://www.topeventsusa.com/state-events-wyoming.html
Or, take a look at the official web site for the race at www.wyomingstagestop.org